Cenipa recovers black box from helicopter that crashed in Urubici and killed singer Rick

The Aeronautical Accident Investigation and Prevention Center (Cenipa) reported having recovered the black box of the Bell 430 helicopter, which crashed in the Santa Catarina mountains, in the region of the municipality of Urubici, last Sunday (20). Singer Rick, from the country duo Rick and Renner, was on board the aircraft.

In addition to him, four other people were traveling in the helicopter. None of them survived the fall.

The black box refers to the recorder whose technical name is Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and contains the record of communications and sounds in the cockpit. The equipment will be sent to the Flight Recorder Data Reading and Analysis Laboratory (LABDATA), in Brasília (DF).

Cenipa informed that the preliminary work of preparing, extracting and recording the data will be started by the researchers in the next few days.

According to the agency, the first stage of the investigation was concluded this Wednesday (23), after collecting all the evidence and parts of the aircraft necessary for the investigation, releasing the remaining wreckage to the competent police authority, which must isolate and preserve the accident site, as provided for in aeronautical legislation.

The aircraft operator will be responsible for removing the wreckage, transported goods and cleaning the accident site.

"After the completion of the Initial Action in Urubici (SC), the investigation will advance to the data analysis phase. At this stage, activities related to the flight, the operational environment and human factors will be examined, as well as detailed studies of components, equipment, systems, infrastructure, among other elements related to the occurrence, will be carried out", said Cenipa, in a note.

Accident

The helicopter crashed into dense forest while flying from Porto Belo, on the north coast, to the city of São Joaquim, both in Santa Catarina. The searches lasted around 13 hours and were carried out by Brazilian Air Force (FAB) aircraft, as well as firefighters and rescue teams.

The wreckage was only found around 12pm on Tuesday (22), in the Urubici region. In addition to Rick, pilot Antônio Roberto Nóbrega de Araújo, co-pilot Leopoldo Barros Teixeira, videomaker Paulo Soares and businessman Bruno Avelar de Souza were also on board.

Rick's body will be laid to rest in the city of Sorocaba (SP) this Thursday (24), in a ceremony reserved for family and friends.